On the heels of significant legislative activity in 2024 when numerous state legislatures sought to expand the reach of "mini-HSR laws" by targeting healthcare transactions involving private equity firms or sponsors, state...more
President Donald Trump signed the executive order “Reducing Anti-Competitive Regulatory Barriers” on April 9, 2025, directing federal agencies to identify and reform regulations that unnecessarily restrict market competition....more
This report compiles several important developments that shaped the healthcare and life sciences industries in 2024 and spotlights key areas to watch in 2025. Each section addresses either an industry sector within healthcare...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on January 10, 2025 that it will raise the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR Act) jurisdictional and filing fee thresholds. The increased thresholds will go into effect 30 days after...more
1/13/2025
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Final Rules ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Threshold Requirements
The 2024 US election cycle underscored the strong and varied views of the American electorate. However, there is at least one federal government agency where Republicans and Democrats have seen eye-to-eye more than many might...more
As we approach the end of 2024 and the 2024 US presidential and congressional elections, there are several key antitrust-related deadlines and potential changes to watch for at the US antitrust enforcement agencies and other...more
Driven by a growing wave of enforcer skepticism toward further healthcare consolidation, some state legislatures have begun to propose “mini-HSR” laws explicitly targeting healthcare transactions involving private equity...more
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has enacted its Fair Contracting for Health Care Practitioners Act, which will prohibit employers from enforcing employment noncompete clauses for medical professionals with limited...more
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released new Merger Guidelines on December 18, 2023—dramatically expanding the number and type of transactions that the agencies will consider...more
A US district court judge, in a case of first impression, recently held that Louisiana Children’s Medical Center’s acquisition of three New Orleans–area hospitals from HCA Healthcare, Inc. was exempt from both the federal...more
The US Federal Trade Commission is suing US Anesthesia Partners Inc. and its private equity founder for allegedly enacting an anticompetitive scheme to gain market power through a series of roll-up acquisitions....more
California, Illinois, and Minnesota are the latest states to enact laws requiring merging parties in healthcare-related transactions to notify state agencies and observe waiting periods (anywhere from less than 30 days to...more
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division is withdrawing three enforcement policy statements that provided important guidance on the exchange of competitively sensitive information through third parties. The...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued long-awaited guidance regarding its interpretation of the scope of Section 5 of the FTC Act on November 10, 2022. The updated guidance expands what the FTC may consider to be “unfair”...more
Federal antitrust enforcers at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) continue to take an aggressive stance in healthcare. Two recent developments underscore the trend....more
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently voted to withdraw its approval of the Vertical Merger Guidelines (the 2020 VMGs), which, as we covered in the past, the FTC and Department of Justice (DOJ) issued over a year ago...more
After a sluggish year in 2020 for mergers and acquisitions among hospitals and health systems, 2021 has shown renewed vigor and is poised for considerable transactional activity. When the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in the...more
On December 8, 2020, Judge Gerald Pappert in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied a request from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Pennsylvania attorney general (AG) to preliminarily...more
The Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute LLC (FCS), a leading oncology provider in Southwest...more
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division issued a Business Review Letter (BRL) on January 15 in response to a proposal by the American Optometric Association (AOA) and AOAExcel GPO, LLC to expand their group...more
Building on an executive order issued by US President Donald Trump in June, the administration released a pair of broad and inclusive rules aimed at advancing price transparency in healthcare on November 15, 2019. Key themes...more
CMS has released a pair of rules “that take historic steps to increase price transparency to empower patients and increase competition among all hospitals, group health plans and health insurance issuers in the individual and...more
The FTC announced on October 21, 2019, that its Commissioners voted 5–0 in support of issuing orders requesting information from five health insurance companies and two health systems to study the effects of Certificate of...more
US President Donald Trump issued the Executive Order on Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare to Put Patients First on June 24, another in a long line of recent executive and legislative branch...more
A series of recent statements highlight the continuing enforcement by the US Department of Justice to focus on “no-poaching” and wage-fixing agreements with more enforcement actions expected to be announced in the near...more